5 Rebooted Franchises That Still Deserve Sequels

Remakes, sequels, prequels, board games and anything with any sort of name recognition have become common place for movie adaptations these days, they are frequently the favorite cookie jars Hollywood likes to jam its hand into when it comes to plundering new ideas. However, none of these opportunities seem to be as favoured as the reboot.

This could mean scrapping the entire original pallet of work (like Len Wiseman’s Mummy reboot) or simply taking the fictional universe used before to jump-start new stories for a new generation (such as Prometheus.) Some struggle – either due to a lack of quality, or because audiences are too familiar with the originals, but some rebooted franchises deserve more time with audiences, and almost certainly deserve the opportunity for a sequel.

Here are five such franchises…

5. Terminator Salvation

Many Terminator fans were skeptical to say the least when McG was announced as the man who was going to reboot the Terminator franchise, after all he was the guy that had already rebooted Charlie’s Angels. But, McG worked hard for the endorsement of fans and seemed to have a true love for the franchise and some pretty neat ideas, and it was all good news after that. Linda Hamilton was hired to do voicework, Christian Bale was signed up to play a now grown John Connor living in the future and top writers like Jonathan Nolan and Paul Haggis did polishes on the script. McG even met with Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Cameron before filming.

However, what ended up on the screen was a guilty pleasure at best and a stunning disappointment at worst. Besides a brilliant opening and the star-making performance by Sam Worthington, Salvation suffered from a weak performance from Bale, an unnecessary digital “cameo” by the Governator and a need to too-often remind the audience that this was in fact a Terminator film.

McG later revealed his dark ending for the film and how studio interference prevented it, but the director still expressed love for the franchise after Salvation’s failure at the box office and with critics and even revealed some cool ideas for a next installment that would include bringing Robert Patrick back into the fold.

Salvation may have disappointed, but there is clearly potential for the franchise and for McG to do something really cool especially with an unretired Schwarzenegger looking for work. Salvation deserves a sequel because there is still an incredible amount of potential in McG’s new Terminator future for some great stories.